5 Meditations for Anxiety and Depression: May 2017

Hi TSIB friends!

Every Monday on Instagram (@TheStrangeisBeautiful) I post a meditation to practice based on my own personal yoga practice and training. Here are five of the latest meditations I posted for you to practice this month :)

Sending you ++posi vibes++
Shannen Roberts

Meditation #1My yoga mentor @ashleyrideaux posted about this quote recently and it’s been helpful for me as I’ve been feeling anxious, a false urgency and need to complete my goals or do something NOW or else I am a failure and have no purpose and no worth. Her advice is:

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“‘Don’t push the river, it flows by itself.’
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Sometimes in life we feel like we are working so hard, and getting no where. Sometimes we’re actually pushing so hard that we’re moving what we desire, further away. In these moments it’s important to find the strength to let go… let it be ✨”・・・
This is a hard practice, but necessary to find happiness in the present moment, happiness in the journey instead of dread that we are not at the end, the finish line, the proud prize that will last but a fleeting moment and then have you craving more again. What you are working toward will come, but it will come when it’s ready. Seeds take time and love to grow. Practice slowing down, taking time inbetween tasks to breathe or meditate for five minutes and ask the universe for patience, endurance and acceptance in the present. #TheStrangeisBeautiful

Meditation #2

“Sadness gives depth.
Happiness gives height.
Sadness gives roots.
Happiness gives branches.
Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth.
Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree,
the bigger will be its roots.
In fact, it is always in proportion.
That’s its balance.” -Osho ✨✨✨#TheStrangeisBeautiful ✨✨✨

Meditate tonight, lying down, sitting or standing, and imagine roots growing out of the part of your body that is touching the floor and branches growing out of your body into the air and sky. Inhale, find length in your branches, exhale breathe down your spine and into your roots. You can also practice this is Tree Pose or in any standing yoga pose such as Warrior 2.

Meditation #3

Sometimes when memories of bad habits come to us, we mistake the memories for habits that we should practice today because it will give us pleasure. For example, a former smoker might, when stressed, have memories of feeling happy when smoking and crave smoking. In yoga these memories, or impressions, are called samskaras. We can become convinced using cognitive dissonance that smoking is not that bad and our new healthy habits – such as yoga – are not bringing us happiness, but our old habits will because our memories of them were happy. It is hard in these situations to see the truth, to see through the delusion of memory. But with practice and non-attachment, it will get easier to be honest with yourself and to see through and not give in to the samskaras. Meditate tonight on habits you convince yourself through cognitive dissonance to be okay, let go of your ego, and accept the truth. Write down a plan on how to act on this truth. #MeditationMondays#TheStrangeisBeautiful

Meditation #4

Eyes can be open and focused on a point in front of you or on the light of a ✨candle OR eyes can be closed. Often when we close the eyes in meditation darkness and discomfort surfaces and we have to open our eyes. If this happens to you practice first with the eyes open, once you’re comfortable with this, play with closing the eyes for one minute, then three minutes, then five minutes. As you meditate, on your inhale think of the word “So” and on your exhale think of the word “Hum” which means I am all of creation. Set a timer and if possible, have the timer on a soothing alarm sound such as chimes. #MeditationMondays#TheStrangeisBeautiful

Meditation #5

Book Two # 33 and # 34 in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The idea is to “eliminate negative self-talk” and to “shift out of old habits (samskara) of negative thoughts and action to new more positive ones.” – Nielan Barnes. In Book Two # 34 Sri Swami Satchidanada said, “When negative thoughts or acts such as violence etc. are done, caused to be done, or even approved of, whether incited by greed, anger or infatuation, whether indulged in with mild, medium or extreme intensity, they are based on ignorance and bring certain pain. Reflecting thus is also pratipaksha bhavanam.” #TheStrangeisBeautiful